Get ready to rock the new year with AMA Madison’s virtual Craft Marketing on Jan. 26, 2021. Edessa Polzin of Web Courseworks will present “Getting SaaSy: The One (Wo)Man Marketing Team Survival Guide.”
The free virtual presentation begins at 4 p.m. with networking. Thanks to Winbound, the sponsor. Register here.
Check out Edessa’s preview of what attendees will experience at the upcoming Craft Marketing presentation.
AMA: Tell us a little about yourself and what Web Courseworks does.
A: Web Courseworks is a full-service learning technologies company. We help professional organizations provide continuing education to their members. The Madison-based firm is nearly 20 years old.
I moved to the U.S. with my daughter about eight years ago from the sunny Philippines. We moved here just before the Winter Storm Draco in 2012. It was a real shock when I went outside and found my car buried in snow!
English is my fourth language. A lot of people are surprised when they learn this fact, which always makes me smile. My husband often jokes that he forgets I haven’t lived here all my life because I know A LOT about the American pop culture.
Cooking is how I relax and thanks to COVID, I’ve become a really good Instant Pot chef! If I wasn’t a marketer, I’d probably be a standup comedian or a home cook running my own food truck.
AMA: Has your marketing approach changed during the pandemic?
A: One of the things that the pandemic highlighted for us at Web Courseworks is the huge disconnect between our website traffic and conversions. Our website gets thousands of visitors each month, but we only get a handful of requests for a meeting/demo. As a result, I analyzed our lead conversion strategy to see what else we could do because we no longer network at in-person conferences and tradeshows.
The pandemic also increased my appreciation of content. Running webinars and Zoom meetings is normal for me, but I realized not everyone knows how to run Zoom or do a webinar. I felt that it was our responsibility to help our audience and existing clients navigate this fully virtual world. We created several PDFs outlining virtual meetings, speaker checklists, etc.
The pandemic has also changed my approach to our sales team. My job, at the end of the day, is to make sure they have all the tools they need to close a deal. If our sales team doesn’t get qualified leads, it will be much harder for them to make a sale. I need to make sure that I’m making things easier for them.
AMA: Can you share a few best practices concerning marketing planning and implementation?
A: I follow some guidelines to keep my sanity as a one-(wo)man marketing department.
First best practice: Over-communicate. Running a department is hard, but running a one-person department is just bananas. Don’t be afraid to be upfront and tell your team that you’ve reached your mental capacity or that your priorities this week are XYZ and that their request for ABC will have to wait for next week.
Second best practice: Arm yourself with as much data as possible. Setting goals is easy, but it’s the part where you need to prove your work that’s a little tricky. Unlike sales, marketing goals and accomplishments aren’t as black and white.
Which campaign performed well? What are some areas that you can improve upon? How much did we spend on XYZ and how many leads did we get? What’s our primary source of opportunities? Is it the website? Referrals? Upselling? Every marketing move you make should be data-driven.
Third best practice: Have the right tools for the job. As a one-person department, your time is gold and the more work you can automate/have less hands-on time on, the better. Don’t just settle for something that works “okay” – make sure it gets you what YOU want, and it makes your job as a marketer easier.
AMA: What is the big takeaway people can expect if they attend the event?
A: There are millions of articles about one-person marketing teams and departments online. While these articles are helpful to some degree, they don’t really give us the tools to THRIVE in our one-(wo)man show.
At my presentation, I’ll share ideas on how to be successful and feel accomplished despite being a team of one. And with everything that 2020 has thrown at us, feeling good about ourselves as marketers can’t hurt.
AMA Madison’s ‘Craft Marketing‘ Series
Craft Marketing features a local virtual presenter each month. You’ll have the chance to learn about a wide range of marketing topics while networking with other industry professionals and enjoying the drink of your choice from your virtual location.